Diastematomyelia in congenital scoliosis: a report of two cases.

INTRODUCTION

Even if diastematomyelia is a rare condition, it always has to be identified in case of diagnosing and treating a case of congenital scoliosis. The consequence of missing the diagnosis of such a malformation may be devastating to the involved patient. This paper wants once again to make aware the physicians of the eventual presence of a spinal dysraphic malformation when dealing with a congenital spinal malformation.

METHODS

The presence of diastematomyelia was noticed in two of our cases, one with congenital scoliosis and another with congenital kyphoscoliosis. First of all in these cases, we performed the resection of the bony septum, followed by spinal fusion in a single-stage surgical procedure. We noticed no complications during and after surgery related to the resection of the bony septum.

RESULTS

In both patients, we obtained partial correction and stabilization of the congenital spinal malformation after a safe excision of the bony septum.

CONCLUSIONS

Diastematomyelia is a rare condition. It has to be taken into consideration when dealing with a congenital scoliosis. The first step in the surgical procedure has to be the resection of the diastematomyelic septum. In case of a scoliosis ranging up to 30° and not presenting a progressive potential, the expectative-evaluation attitude is a correct one.